Plane with unresponsive pilot crashes into Gulf

The Coast Guard says a small plane that two F-15 fighter jets had tracked for hours has crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Petty Officer Elizabeth Boderland said the plane crashed about 120 miles west of Tampa, Fla., at about 12:10 p.m. Eastern.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the plane was flying from Slidell, La., to Sarasota, Fla. She said one person was on board and that the FAA had been tracking the plane since it lost contact with the pilot at 9 a.m.

Two F-15 fighter jets had been flying alongside the plane and Coast Guard resources from Mobile also were being deployed to assist. It had been estimated the plane would run out of fuel at around 11:30 a.m.

NORAD is responsible for defending the skies over North America and monitoring sea traffic off the continent's shores.

A Federal Aviation Administration source told CNN the twin-engine Cessna
421 began circling at 28,000 feet, roughly 150 miles south of
Crestview, Florida.

The Coast Guard dispatched a plane to search for the aircraft and has a patrol boat and helicopter on stand-by.

The Air Force noticed the
plane flying erratically over the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning
and dispatched planes to check it out, said Chief Petty Officer John
Edwards, a Coast Guard spokesman. They found the Cessna's windows were
either iced or fogged over, and the pilot was not responding to radio
calls, Edwards said.

The Coast Guard warned
ships in the area to keep a lookout for the plane. According to ABC News, Edwards said a Coast
Guard plane from Mobile, Alabama, was dispatched to assist with a
possible rescue, and the Florida-based cutter Coho is en route to the
area. A helicopter in Clearwater, Florida, was also standing by to
assist, he said.